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Well, that's better. Nice to see our guys play a full 4 quarters, especially on the road. Any SEC road win is a good one, especially at Arkansas.

OFFENSEQB: AWhat more do you want from your QB? Connor takes care of the ball, is getting more and more confident with a range of throws, and can kill you with his feet. He's also trusting the pocket more now which is paying off even more.

RB: ADavis is just flat crushing it. I figured he'd have a good year, but I had no idea that he'd be this good. He can block, he can catch the ball, and he does NOT go down at first contact. He's a complete back. Nice to see Shon get more work this week, he looked a lot more comfortable after getting multiple carries. He also did a nice job blocking, picking up several blitzes on the day.

WR/TE: ABruce came back in a big way, and Byrd is finally starting to give us that vertical stretch we need. Defensive coordinators are going to look at this film and go nuts. Byrd was killing the safties deep all afternoon, Bruce kept finding holes in the zone, and our TE's were running free all day. All told 7 different Gamecock WRs and TEs caught passes. Some of that was due to backups getting to play, but most of it was due to Connor spreading the ball so well, our RBs caught 4 passes as well. Great to see Shamier get on the board, his 5 catches were second behind Bruce's 6.

OL: AI hate that we've now got two starters banged up, but this unit might be the best in Gamecock history. Very consistent and very physical. We still haven't faced a defensive front like LSU or Florida, but they're easily one of the top units in the SEC.

DEFENSEDL: BMuch better game. Yes, it helps that we played a bad Arkansas team, but their o-line is pretty decent. Fantastic run support by this group this week, nice to see guys shedding blocks and crashing down. Didn't get a ton of pressure on the QB, but never really needed to either.

LB/Spur: CPlayed a little better this game, but I still see two LBs headed to the same gap, and our second level run support gets turned around too easy. The TD run in the 1st quarter was just bad technique and people being out of position. Holloman had his best game this week.

CB/S: AA week after looking like the worse secondary ever, this unit turns it around and holds Arkansas to just 30 yards passing. That's 120 less than what they usually get. Also, turnovers.

SPECIAL TEAMSOverall: AIt feels so good to write that. Every part of the special teams unit played well...except Ard's out of bounds kick. I bet his leg was sore after this one.

Also: Cooper!

COACHINGOverall: ASay what you want but after the Kentucky game we were a fragile team. We had guys blaming each other, mad coaches, and a spat between coaches and a player that went national. Kudos to the coaching staff for getting these guys focused and putting together a solid game plan. Yes, Arkansas is a bad team, but they went toe to toe with Texas A&M and put more yards on Florida at Florida than they did on us at home. With the road stand we're facing we needed to come out and prove we can win on the road.

Mission accomplished.

INTANGIBLES Overall: A
We held the ball for over 42 minutes. Let that sink in. In a 60 minute game we held the ball for 42 of them. That's insane. We also managed to force 3 turnovers, something we haven't done a lot this year. Getting the backups quality minutes on the road is really going to pay off, and being able to run Cooper in the wildcat has given defensive coordinators yet another thing to deal with. If we can continue to play like that this year is going to be very, very interesting.

FINAL THOUGHTS

A complete game. Finally. We all knew we were capable of it, we just hadn't seen it yet. Although there's been discontent this season, imagine if the Vandy, UCF, and Kentucky games had similar scores. Well, we were just a play or two away from doing just that.

The opposite can be said as well though, which is why I hate those "one play away" type statements. We're still the same team that we were prior to the Arkansas game, wildly talented and deeply flawed in a few areas. Arkansas is not a good team, but they're better than a lot of teams out there and we beat them like a drum, in their house.

Although one win doesn't fix all your problems, it is comforting to see that this team continues to get better. If we can keep doing that, this very young team can live up to it's promise. Next up we have a dangerous Tennessee team that had a week off to prepare for us, and got a huge shot of confidence from the UGA game last week. Hopefully we'll be a mature team that watches the UT/UGA tape, realizes UT can beat us if we're sloppy, and goes out and takes care of business.

We're back in control of our own destiny. Win out, and we're in Atlanta. It's as simple, and as hard, as that.

I think special teams is more of a B. They didn't do anything spectacular, but didn't hurt us that much either. One good punt return kinda negates one kick out of bounds, so I'd say that they were average

Well, that's better. Nice to see our guys play a full 4 quarters, especially on the road. Any SEC road win is a good one, especially at Arkansas.

OFFENSEQB: AWhat more do you want from your QB? Connor takes care of the ball, is getting more and more confident with a range of throws, and can kill you with his feet. He's also trusting the pocket more now which is paying off even more.

RB: ADavis is just flat crushing it. I figured he'd have a good year, but I had no idea that he'd be this good. He can block, he can catch the ball, and he does NOT go down at first contact. He's a complete back. Nice to see Shon get more work this week, he looked a lot more comfortable after getting multiple carries. He also did a nice job blocking, picking up several blitzes on the day.

WR/TE: ABruce came back in a big way, and Byrd is finally starting to give us that vertical stretch we need. Defensive coordinators are going to look at this film and go nuts. Byrd was killing the safties deep all afternoon, Bruce kept finding holes in the zone, and our TE's were running free all day. All told 7 different Gamecock WRs and TEs caught passes. Some of that was due to backups getting to play, but most of it was due to Connor spreading the ball so well, our RBs caught 4 passes as well. Great to see Shamier get on the board, his 5 catches were second behind Bruce's 6.

OL: AI hate that we've now got two starters banged up, but this unit might be the best in Gamecock history. Very consistent and very physical. We still haven't faced a defensive front like LSU or Florida, but they're easily one of the top units in the SEC.

DEFENSEDL: BMuch better game. Yes, it helps that we played a bad Arkansas team, but their o-line is pretty decent. Fantastic run support by this group this week, nice to see guys shedding blocks and crashing down. Didn't get a ton of pressure on the QB, but never really needed to either.

LB/Spur: CPlayed a little better this game, but I still see two LBs headed to the same gap, and our second level run support gets turned around too easy. The TD run in the 1st quarter was just bad technique and people being out of position. Holloman had his best game this week.

CB/S: AA week after looking like the worse secondary ever, this unit turns it around and holds Arkansas to just 30 yards passing. That's 120 less than what they usually get. Also, turnovers.

SPECIAL TEAMSOverall: AIt feels so good to write that. Every part of the special teams unit played well...except Ard's out of bounds kick. I bet his leg was sore after this one.

Also: Cooper!

COACHINGOverall: ASay what you want but after the Kentucky game we were a fragile team. We had guys blaming each other, mad coaches, and a spat between coaches and a player that went national. Kudos to the coaching staff for getting these guys focused and putting together a solid game plan. Yes, Arkansas is a bad team, but they went toe to toe with Texas A&M and put more yards on Florida at Florida than they did on us at home. With the road stand we're facing we needed to come out and prove we can win on the road.

Mission accomplished.

INTANGIBLES Overall: A
We held the ball for over 42 minutes. Let that sink in. In a 60 minute game we held the ball for 42 of them. That's insane. We also managed to force 3 turnovers, something we haven't done a lot this year. Getting the backups quality minutes on the road is really going to pay off, and being able to run Cooper in the wildcat has given defensive coordinators yet another thing to deal with. If we can continue to play like that this year is going to be very, very interesting.

FINAL THOUGHTS

A complete game. Finally. We all knew we were capable of it, we just hadn't seen it yet. Although there's been discontent this season, imagine if the Vandy, UCF, and Kentucky games had similar scores. Well, we were just a play or two away from doing just that.

The opposite can be said as well though, which is why I hate those "one play away" type statements. We're still the same team that we were prior to the Arkansas game, wildly talented and deeply flawed in a few areas. Arkansas is not a good team, but they're better than a lot of teams out there and we beat them like a drum, in their house.

Although one win doesn't fix all your problems, it is comforting to see that this team continues to get better. If we can keep doing that, this very young team can live up to it's promise. Next up we have a dangerous Tennessee team that had a week off to prepare for us, and got a huge shot of confidence from the UGA game last week. Hopefully we'll be a mature team that watches the UT/UGA tape, realizes UT can beat us if we're sloppy, and goes out and takes care of business.

We're back in control of our own destiny. Win out, and we're in Atlanta. It's as simple, and as hard, as that.

__________________'Life is one big road, with lots of signs, so when you're ridin' through the ruts, don't ya complicate your mind, flee from hate, mischief, and jealousy, don't bury your dreams, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live.'--RNM

UGa only has one loss. If they win out from here and we do too and it ends up us and UGa tied with one loss apiece, then they get the nod due to head to head.

So, we still need a little help. BUT, first, we have to take care of our own business and see where the chips fall.

What if we beat MO and they win every other game? GA, MO and us would all have 1 loss with GA having the tiebreaker over us, MO having the tiebreaker over GA, and us having the tiebreaker over MO. That would be an interesting mess.

What if we beat MO and they win every other game? GA, MO and us would all have 1 loss with GA having the tiebreaker over us, MO having the tiebreaker over GA, and us having the tiebreaker over MO. That would be an interesting mess.

Tie would still go to UGA as dumb as it is.

Pretty sure we still need them to lose one more, but let's say Vandy sneaks up and steals one from them in Nashvegas next week. Then, we would once again control our destiny 100%. If UGA drops even one more SEC game and we win out, we will be in ATL.

I'm convinced that if we win out, we will be there. UGA will take care of their part when they go face War Eagle and/or UF.